Present-day politics in India is a race to prove to voters who is a bigger Hindu, AIMIM member of Parliament Mr Asaduddin Owaisi said at the India Conference 2019 in Harvard University, where he has gone to deliver a speech on the state of politics in India.

“The 2019 general elections will not be about what a government can deliver. The race now is about proving who is a bigger Hindu in India. This is the politics being practiced, and in the run-up to the elections we will see more and more of these aspects.”

The invocation of National Security Act against three Muslims for alleged cow slaughter in Madhya Pradesh is a case in point where the fight for being the bigger Hindu is clear, he said. “My whole fight is for people’s Constitutional rights. I follow the Constitutional tools given by Babasaheb Ambedkar, which is equality, fraternity and justice. The Constitution talks about equal distribution of wealth and it cannot lie in the hands of a few.”

On the recent Pulwama terror attack, Mr Owaisi said: “I condemn what happened in Kashmir with all truthfulness and it is Pakistan which is to be blamed for the terrorist attack. But the sad reality of our present-day politics and also the reality in the nation is that Mr Asaduddin Owaisi can be called a true nationalist only after he criticises Pakistan. The moment I do not criticise Pakistan my Indianness is questioned. My forefathers rejected the ideology of Jinnah and we said that India is our country. I am not only an Indian by birth but also by choice, which no one can take away from me. But in the light of what happened in Kashmir if you go to my Twitter timeline, every second question is whether I have condemned this attack. Have you condemned Pakistan? Why don’t you go to Pakistan? Even after 70 years of Independence, I am being asked this question, why don’t you go to Pakistan?”

Mr Owaisi further said, “No one is asking how did that attack happen? How did that plastic explosive get inside Kashmir? No one is asking that question? Because now that it has been mentioned, there will be a scroll saying ‘Asaduddin Owaisi questions India at Harvard?’. This is the state of our politics. You cannot question the supreme leader and you cannot question the national party. What we in turn see now is that Muslims are being questioned and Kashmiris are being targeted. Am sure those terrorists must be feeling really happy how as a nation we are unable to stop these thugs from targeting Kashmiris.”